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Hot kuzhi paniyaram , a delicacy in Tamil Nadu, will be available today between 4 pm and 5 pm only, reads an SMS from Mama's mess in Triplicane sent to Desikan living nearby. This is just one example of a business targeting people through mobiles in the same locality.
The Chennai-based EdServ Education Ltd plans to help small businesses reach out to people living in their locality via mobile messages. In other words, it is like neighbourhood mobile networking with customers, who are provided information about vendors in the same area.
Tie-up with Samsung
At present, EdServ's HumThum application on a Samsung smartphone allows a registered vendor or users to instantly share information or news in his/her area — a concept similar to neighbourhood newspapers that provide news dedicated to a region.
The app, available at www.humthum.com , plans to cover over 20,000 pin codes in India: for each pin code, there will be a set of users sharing information. Small businesses will be able to acquire customers by using a combination of the app and a business Web site.
Educational support
Developed in-house at EdServ, humhum.com also provides educational support services that include tutor search and assessments, career services and local area-based services across these 20,000 pin codes, says Mr S. Giridharan, Chairman and CEO, EdServ.
Through HumThum, a person or a company creates a Web site to share information in a region instantly.
HumThum will create a distribution system of over 20,000 people (area partner for each pin code). It is the first time that a Web site will be created for every pin code in India where a two-way information-exchange mechanism will be available.
Mr Giridharan says the company has already linked nearly with 500 pin codes with area partners to drive the mobile application.
When asked whether such SMSes will not be against the do-not-disturb restrictions, Mr Giridharan says the mobile user has the choice to subscribe for particular information from a particular service provider.
Beyond education
The idea of starting such a mobile application is to go beyond education, to knowledge and information exchange. All Samsung smartphones will have HumThum, a mobile knowledge Java AppStore. The company is talking to other mobile companies to include the AppStore on their devices.
EdServ has targeted one crore users and expects Rs 200 crore in revenue from mobile educational apps in three years.
Around 50,000 students have already accessed HumThum's mobile apps.
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